In data center and other environments, a large number of computing peripherals are usually organized in such a way as to efficiently use the physical space available for them. For instance, many such peripherals are rack-mounted. Rack-mounted peripherals have a standard width that enables them to be inserted into industry-standard racks. Racks may themselves be seven feet or more in height, allowing a large number of rack-mounted peripherals to be inserted into a single rack.
A hard disk enclosure blade is a rack-mounted peripheral that accepts a number of trays of hard disk drives. Therefore, in a relatively small space, a large number of hard disk drives can be stored. For instance, one type of hard disk enclosure blade accepts eight trays. Each tray can hold three hard disk drives, such that the hard disk enclosure itself can store a total of twenty-four hard disk drives.
Such a hard disk enclosure blade that is fully populated with twenty-four hard disk drives can be relatively heavy, however. For instance, a fully populated hard disk enclosure blade can weigh more than twenty kilograms, or more than forty-four pounds. Administrators who are responsible for managing such rack-mounted peripherals may not realize that such hard disk enclosure blades are so heavy. Therefore, they may try to remove a fully populated hard disk enclosure blade from a rack, not realizing the full weight of the fully populated blade.
As a result, there is a real potential for the blade accidentally dropping to the floor. While dropping any type of rack-mounted peripheral can potentially cause damage to the peripheral, the chance for damage is heightened with hard disk enclosure blades, because hard disk drives are sensitive to extreme force impacts, which can occur on their being dropped and hitting the floor. For this and other reasons, therefore, there is a need for the present invention.